It seems like just yesterday I was fretting over our Las Vegas trip, to the GAMA Trade Show. And now, here we are in the heart of convention season, between Gen Con (which rocked!) and Penny Arcade Expo (which will rock!) . . .
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Horrible puns aside, those lucky few (thousand) of you who are going to the Penny Arcade Expo may want to be aware that the Munchkin Mascot is one of the items you need to photograph for the PAX Photo Scavenger Hunt this year. For bonus points, he'll be carrying a couple other items worth points in the Hunt on Saturday . . .
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That question could have been asked by BOTH parties in a recent encounter on the plains of Mars. The rover Opportunity took a look at a strange rock and determined that it was a meteorite, the largest yet found on Mars . . .
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In 1969, Dutch Prime Minister Willem Drees received a lunar rock from the crew of the Apollo 11 flight, during their goodwill tour of the world. After Drees' death, the rock was given to the Rijksmuseum, the Dutch National Museum . . .
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It's Labor Day here in the States, which means most businesses, including the Steve Jackson Games office and Warehouse 23 are closed. e23's customer service is off as well, but that shouldn't stop you from ordering Action 3: Furious Fists, or whatever you desire; payment transactions are all handled by spritely electrons, who have no need for holidays. Similarly, the Munchkin mascot will be making an appearance today at Games & Gizmos, in Redmond Washington . . .
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The little “shooter” game on the Frag page has been replaced by a much, much cooler little shooter game, created in Flash by Marc Beaudette and Matt Doughty, with a music loop by Rob Carmichael. Can you frag every enemy that pops up (but not your buddies!) before they frag you? . . .
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When I told my shrink, "Yes, but not that kind of dungeon – and not that kind of fantasy!", I found myself answering questions about the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy series. Or was that a thread over on our forums? . . .
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Sensationalist media continues to fall back on Swine Flu as "The Next Thing that Could Kill You!" to get their ratings. The CDC does caution that H1N1's most severe symptoms seem to appear in a demographic younger than the average flu victim, but there isn't much evidence that it is "The Big One."
That said, the swine flu is still the flu, which sucks . . .
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As much as I enjoy high-minded discourse on the subtleties and complexities of life in the cosmos, I really enjoy watching two disgustingly well-armed individuals fill the air with screaming metal as they try to resolve their differences. A lot . . .
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This is our official announcement of January's release, but if you're following our Twitter feed (and why wouldn't you be?), you've already seen Phil and SJ spill the beans.
Chez Cthulhu
Prepare for an encounter with the most sanity-blasting entities in this or any dimension . . . Your roommates.
Chez Cthulhu brings the horror of Lovecraft's Mythos right into your apartment . . . as if the leftovers from the Pizza with Absolutely Everything weren't bad enough . . .
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While I'm working on a full report for the staff, I thought I'd share a few impressions of the Penny Arcade Expo here. This was my first year, so "overwhelmed" was an expression I used more than occasionally during my experience, but I've managed to sort out my recollections (mostly) . . .
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Add The Vigilant Citizen to the list of those who Have Their Eye On Things. He (they?) track Conspiracy pawns like songstress Lady Gaga . . . in fact, a number of female pop singers show up on their radar . . .
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Nanuk's prototype has arrived from the printer. There's a certain thrill when you open up the first real copy of the game, touching the components and seeing the real colors of the cards . . .
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Pyramid #3/11: Cinematic Locations is using the word "cinematic" in the sense that the locations included in this issue are stylistically similar to what one might find on the silver screen. It is not, in fact, a list of places for you to shoot your movie . . .
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BoardGameGeek user Steven D. has written the first review of our edition of The Stars Are Right. It's an excellent review, and highlights the very important "easy to learn, hard to master" engine behind the games . . .
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Sorting through the last stack of GenCon artifacts, I came across two books that weren't mine, nor were they any of the rest of the crew's. A bit of conversation later, we figured out that the books were found under a demo table at the end of the day, and moved into a box. The most likely scenario involves someone buying these titles from a dealer like Crazy Egor's, stopping by our booth for a demo, and the books falling out of their backpack . . .
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Welcome to CoRoT-7b, the first confirmed rocky planet outside our solar system. You'll probably want to stay in the shade -- but not all the way into darkness, not without your long underwear . . .
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